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Published: September 30, 2013
Career Services Director Q&A: Javier Muñoz of IESE
Our interview series with career services directors at top business schools takes us this week to Barcelona’s IESE, where we spoke with Javier Muñoz, assistant dean and director of career management. Muñoz knows IESE from many angles. He began there in 2001 as an MBA student himself, completing his degree in 2003. Upon completion, rather than return to banking, which had been his career path before business school, he accepted a position in the IESE admissions department. “The offer [to join the admissions team] was very surprising at the beginning, but IESE is famous for bringing in MBAs [to its administration] every year,” he told us. After eight years in admissions, including five as head of the department, IESE offered Muñoz an opportunity to lead a different department – career services. He accepted and took over as assistant dean and director in 2011. Muñoz had no idea when he came to IESE for an MBA that he would find himself working there for the next decade plus. “The only thing that I knew was that I wanted to explore different options apart from finance,” he says. He got several other offers, but when IESE came calling he answered. “I fell in love with the school, the MBA was such a great experience for me, they offered me a great position and I went for it,” he says. Read more
Published: September 29, 2013
Wharton Needs to Better Showcase What’s Right with Wharton
Swirling debate picked up this week in the realm of top MBA programs, fueled by a Wall Street Journal article on Friday entitled, “What’s Wrong with Wharton?” The Journal piece hinged on a notable 12 percent drop in applications to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School over the past four years. Against a backdrop of gains in application volume by several other top schools in the same time period, Wharton’s drop did seem to beg the question of what’s wrong. The Journal article suggests that behind the falling application volume is the fact that Wharton – with its indisputable strength in finance – didn’t shift quickly enough or significantly enough in the wake of the financial crisis to attract students more drawn to post-MBA careers in fields like technology and entrepreneurship. The Journal also called attention to Wharton’s slide in several top MBA rankings: The Philadelphia school has for the past several years consistently finished behind the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business rather than holding steady as one of the top three business schools in the world. Read more
Published: September 27, 2013
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: EA / Second-year student / On-Campus
The following questions were asked: Walk me through your resume? Why Tuck? Why you for Tuck? Why do you want to pursue an MBA now? Challenging team experience and how did you overcome it? What are 3 strengths that your teammates would say you have? What are a couple of weaknesses that your teammates would say you have? Talk about a passion that might not be on your resume? And then she gave me about 5-10 minutes to ask her questions…. Read more
Published: September 26, 2013
London Business School Receives $40 Million Gift, Hopes to Reach $160 Million in Five Years
Billionaire Israeli industrialist Idan Ofer has given $40 million to his alma mater, London Business School (LBS), to help fund the transformation of a historic London building into a new state-of-the-art educational facility, the school announced yesterday. The gift, made through the Batia and Idan Ofer Family Foundation, is the largest in the school’s history and kicks off a fundraising campaign LBS hopes will raise $160 million over the next five years. Ofer’s gift will help transform Old Marylebone Town Hall, acquired by LBS last year, and fund construction of a new three-story building featuring six Read more
Published: September 26, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly wander through the hallowed digital halls of the b-school blogosphere. This week applicants continued to track their R1 application progress while students experienced a range of experiences and shared some advice to those who may one day follow them.  Ellie compared her intended b-school application schedule to what has actually transpired thus far. MBAMyWay planned to apply to seven schools and explained why. Domotron submitted his Wharton essay and praised Clear Admit's compilation of interview questions. ExpectingMBAMILF recounted what she did and did not tell her extended family about her MBA aspirations and relocation. MBAGirlJourney submitted her Wharton application well in advance of its deadline and began to think about interview preparation. Sanket reported his experience taking part in a Stanford webinar information session. Ppandey turned his attentions to different strategies one can employ when transitioning into consulting. Read more
Published: September 25, 2013
UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Debuts New MBA App for Prospective Applicants
Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina this week released a new app for iPad and iPhone designed to help prospective applicants to business school evaluate whether, when and where to pursue an MBA degree. The MBA App, available for free download in the Apple App Store, was designed to help prospective applicants navigate key “pain points” surrounding the decision to pursue an MBA, Kenan-Flagler Admissions Director Sherry Wallace said in a statement. “Our admissions team listened to the issues that prospective students pondered, and then developed useful information that helps them address those questions and provides valuable information about the process,” she continued. Read more
Published: September 25, 2013
Career Services Director Q&A: Fred Staudmyer of Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Assistant Dean of Career Management Fred Staudmyer has been leading the Career Management Center at Cornell’s Johnson School since September 2009, and he brought decades of executive recruitment and human resources experience with him to the role. Just prior to joining Johnson he led the Garrett Sayer Group, an executive search firm focused on the technology, financial services and consulting industries, and he held a range of other senior positions focused on human resources and recruitment before that. In our interview, Staudmeyer shares his most important objectives as head of Johnson’s Career Management Center, his plans to expand his team of career advisors – including to support a new MBA program in New York City as part of the Cornell Tech Campus – and the book he recommends all Johnson students read to best structure their independent job searches. Read more
Published: September 24, 2013
Applicant Volume for Full-Time MBA Programs on the Rise
A majority of U.S. business schools reported year-over-year growth in full-time MBA applicant volume for the first time since 2009, according to new data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). For the class that started this year, the median number of applications for full-time, two-year MBA programs rose by nearly 12 percent worldwide, GMAC reports. GMAC, which administers the GMAT entrance exam, surveyed 683 graduate programs at 328 schools worldwide for its latest Application Trends Survey, the results of which were released yesterday. Application volume increased at 50 percent of two-year programs responding to the survey, up from 43 percent a year ago. Interest in one-year MBA programs also climbed, with 49 percent of programs surveyed reporting a rise in applicant volume this year over last, as compared to 47 percent last year. Read more
Published: September 23, 2013
Duke’s Fuqua School of Business Launches New One-Year Management Program in China, U.S.
The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University last week announced the launch of a new one-year master’s degree program in management, which will feature three terms of study on Duke’s North Carolina campus and two terms at the new Duke Kunshan University (DKU), near Shanghai. Duke recently received final approval from China’s Ministry of Education to establish DKU, a joint venture between Duke, Wuhan University and the city of Kunshan. The new campus, which is scheduled to open in July 2014, will offer a master’s degree program in global health (through the Duke Global Health Institute) and a proposed degree in medical physics, as well as the new year-long master of management studies (MMS: DKU) degree. DKU will also serve as the Chinese base for Fuqua’s global executive MBA program, the Financial Times reports. Read more
Published: September 23, 2013
Career Services Director Q&A: Regina Regazzi of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management
In its new director of the Parker Career Management Center, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management has found someone with unique insight into the school’s alumni base, as well as extensive recruiting and career consulting experience. Regina Regazzi graduated from Anderson herself with an MBA in 1997. After a stint at Bank of America in leasing she decided to switch gears to executive recruiting, turning to the Parker CMC for help in her own job search. She landed a job at an executive search firm and ultimately went on to launch her own firm, Artume LLC, in 2008. All the while, she remained actively involved with Anderson as an alumna, serving in several roles of the UCLA Anderson Alumni Network and winning the 2005 Outstanding Alumni Service Award. She was ultimately elected president of the Alumni Board of Directors in 2009, responsible for representing the school’s 37,000 alumni. Read more
Published: September 22, 2013
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business to Offer New and Retooled Online Classes
Following its pilot last year of a range of new online courses for its MBA students, the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley is expanding its online offerings while also reworking some of the initial courses based on feedback from students and professors. One of the three pilots offered online last year was “Power and Politics,” a popular MBA course taught by Professor Cameron Anderson. This year, the course will be offered again, but with a revamped website and platform designed to be more intuitive to use. Faster download times are also expected to improve the student experience, allowing for conversation that “mimics the in-person experience as much as possible, with back-and-forth and even spontaneous interjections,” Anderson said as part of an article on the Haas website. He noted that he got to hear from many more people as part of the online version of the class, through online class discussions and chats. Read more
Published: September 19, 2013
UPenn’s Wharton School Teams with Sirius XM to Launch New Business Channel
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Sirius XM Radio to launch a new full-time radio channel focused on business and management, the school announced earlier this week. “Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School,” as the new channel is called, will feature around-the-clock programming on a wide range of business topics, as well as a live, call-in format giving millions of listeners access to Wharton faculty, alumni and expert guests. Expected to launch in early 2014, Business Radio will broadcast from the Wharton campus and Silicon Valley via satellite on Sirius XM channel 111, through the Sirius XM Internet Radio App on smartphones and other devices and online at siriusxm.com. Programming – targeting business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and would-be entrepreneurs – will feature Wharton professors and alumni as regular weekly hosts, as well as an array of special guests, including executives, entrepreneurs, innovators and other experts. Read more
Published: September 19, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to another edition of Fridays From The Fronline, Clear Admit's ongoing observation of the outstanding lives of b-school student and applicant bloggers. This week found applicants putting their HBS applications to bed while students continued to enjoy getting into the swing of all things MBA. MBAReapplicant made progress on his Yale and Sloan essays and promised an update once they were finalized. TimBob submitted his Harvard application and set his sights on the Wharton and Haas deadlines. HammO powered on in his goal of submitting six applications in the first round, noting that he was alive...insane, but alive. Domotron also submitted his HBS application, which was followed by a mini-celebration before getting serious and hunkering back down to work on Wharton. MBAGirlJourney submitted her HBS application a little early and while she wasn't 100% convinced it would lead to an interview, she felt confident that she had done the best she could. Sarah  moved to save money, prepared to retake the GMAT and wrote her first essay. Cambridge '15 Laurent continued his story of meeting the founder of Linksys. Read more
Published: September 18, 2013
Clear Admit Career Services Director Q&A: Pamela Mittman, NYU Stern School of Business
Next up in our Career Services Director Q&A Series is Pamela Mittman, assistant dean of career services and leadership development at NYU Stern School of Business. An alumna of NYU Stern’s full-time MBA program, Mittman brings both a student and alumni perspective to the role. Before joining Stern as an administrator more than 10 years ago, she worked in consulting and financial services. In her current role at NYU Stern, she oversees career services and leadership development for all MBA students. In answering our questions, Mittman helps to describe the very personalized career development process students will encounter at NYU Stern, including a special program known as IGNITE, which begins as soon as students arrive on campus. She also urges students to give careful thought to their personal brand, even when it comes to casual postings on social media pages. Check out more of what she has to say… Read more
Published: September 17, 2013
NYU Stern School of Business Launches New Event Series for Prospective Applicants
New York University’s Stern School of Business this month will launch a new series of events designed to connect prospective MBA applicants with Stern faculty and provide a glimpse of the Stern MBA experience. “The Future of Business” event series will kick off on Saturday, September 28th, at 10 a.m. with a panel discussion on financial services and real estate. Three Stern professors – former investment banker Charles Murphy, Stern Center for Real Estate Finance Research Director Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Robert Whitelaw, chair of Stern’s finance department – will speak in a TED-talk format, after which participants will have a chance to mingle with admissions officers and students from Stern’s full-time MBA, Langone MBA for Working Professionals and Executive MBA programs.   Read more
Published: September 16, 2013
Harvard Business School Admissions Continues Transparency Trend with Note to Round 1 Applicants
Applicants who submitted an application earlier this week as part of Harvard Business School (HBS)’s Round 1 received a prompt confirmation email direct from Dee Leopold, HBS director of admissions and financial aid. In it, Leopold continued HBS’s increasing trend toward transparency in the admissions process by spelling out in clear, down-to-earth terms just want applicants should expect from this point forward. A senior team will begin reviewing submitted applications within a day or so of the September 16th Round 1 deadline, Leopold wrote, and this team will make decisions about who moves forward and who doesn’t. Read more
Published: September 16, 2013
Career Services Director Q&A: London Business School’s Fiona Sandford
Career Services Director Fiona Sandford joined London Business School (LBS) in October 2010, after serving for nearly a decade as the director of career services at the London School of Economics. Since arriving at LBS, she has been helping to develop a new model to more seamlessly integrate soft skills development into the school’s career services offerings. In the interview that follows, you’ll learn more about that new model, as well as who makes up Sandford’s team, how the recruiting process at LBS unfolds and what students can do before arriving on campus to position themselves well for the job search they will conduct there. So read on! Read more
Published: September 15, 2013
UPenn’s Wharton School Offers Free MBA Foundation Series Classes Online
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has added a new series of massive open online courses (MOOCs) covering many of the fundamentals of business and management that students in Wharton’s full-time MBA program learn, taught by the same professors. The first of the Wharton MBA Foundation Series, “An Introduction to Financial Accounting,” begins today. Three other courses make up the new series – introductory courses in operations management, marketing and corporate finance – and all are available via the free online platform Coursera. The new series complements five elective courses already on offer from Wharton via Coursera, including courses on sports business and healthcare. All nine are expected to draw students from around the world, and more than 695,000 students have so far enrolled in a Wharton course, Coursera reports. Read more
Published: September 12, 2013
Harvard Business School Startup HourlyNerd Raises $750,000 in Seed Funding
A startup founded by Harvard Business School (HBS) students as part of a required first-year class secured $750,000 in seed funding earlier this week, including $450,000 from angel investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the Boston Business Journal reports. HourlyNerd, co-founded by Rob Biederman, Peter Maglathlin, David Connolly, Patrick Petitti and Joe Miller, is an online platform designed to connect small and mid-sized businesses with MBAs from top schools willing to provide freelance and part-time work. The idea was born as part of HBS Professor Clayton Rose’s Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) course, an experiential learning course added as a first-year requirement as part of HBS’s recent curriculum redesign. Through the HourlyNerd platform, businesses can post descriptions of the projects they need help with, and MBAs within the network can bid on work they are interested in by indicating the hourly rate they would charge and the milestones they intend to hit. Within its database, the startup boasts roughly 900 current MBA students and recent graduates from top programs including Stanford, Tuck and Wharton. Read more
Published: September 12, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontlines, Clear Admit's weekly perusal of the best of b-school blogging. This week applicants were a busy bunch with one large deadline in the forefront of many of their minds. Current students were adjusting to campus life. BSchool Admit introduced his fellow applicant bloggers to the world. Domotron submitted his HBS application and shifted his focus to his Wharton and HBS applications. ExpectingMBAMILF pondered whether there is a true gender gap in MBA programs. Sanket was in love with the MBA application process. Sarah reviewed the Economist's GMAT prep software. TimBob  vacationed in France and shared a humorous chart of the process one goes through to complete an application. McCombs '15 Raj was three weeks into his MBA experience and didn't regret it a bit. Anderson '15 Daniel  introduced his fellow first year bloggers to the world. Booth '15 Pru celebrated the anniversary of her initial 'crash and burn' R1 applications. HBS '145 2YHBS found himself very busy and discussing the required curriculum. Read more
Published: September 11, 2013
Career Services Director Q&A: Yale School of Management’s Julia Zupko
Julia Zupko joined Yale School of Management (SOM) as assistant dean and director of the Career Development Office in March 2012, bringing with her more than a decade of career services expertise honed at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. At Chicago Booth, Zupko helped expand career services into several sectors, including nonprofit and government work, and directed career management operations at Booth’s campuses in London and Singapore. In her first full year at Yale SOM, Zupko restructured the organization of the Career Development Office in an effort to improve efficiency and strengthen recruitment. Under her helm, the school’s annual SuperWeek in January drew a record 11 investment banks to campus. The overall number of companies coming to recruit Yale SOM students throughout the year also increased. Read on to learn from Zupko herself about how Yale SOM teaches “career skills for life,” how her team helps students steer clear of the “herd effect” and more.  Read more
Published: September 11, 2013
The Top 5 Strategies for GMAT Problem Solving (Part 1)
Today’s GMAT article comes from Manhattan Review Asia, a provider of GMAT Prep courses in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore, among others. In this article, they reveal Manhattan Review’s best 5 strategies how to tackle GMAT Problem Solving questions. In fact, the article is so detailed that we had to split it into two parts. As with every type of question on the GMAT, the biggest challenge to answering Problem Solving questions is figuring out how to get to the right answer in the minimum amount of time. If we had half an hour for each question, we would all be scoring in the 99th percentile. We don’t have half an hour. So forget pride. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are at math. If you can get to the right answer without crafting elegant equations doing fancy algebra, go for it! At some point in the test, a question will stump you. That’s when you’ll be thankful for all of those precious seconds you saved by skipping elaborate calculations. Here are five tips on how to improve your Problem Solving skills and have fun on the test: 1. Go slower in order to go faster It is absolutely essential that you take the time to read the question very carefully. Don’t make assumptions; don’t jump to conclusions; don’t take it for granted that the question is asking the same thing as similar questions asked you in the past. Draw a diagram; write out as clearly and as free of confusion as possible who did what in the past and who is doing what at the moment. It may seem as if you are losing time, but you are not. You are saving yourself precious minutes that you would lose by failing to read the question properly and answering what you haven’t been asked. The strategy is: Get the right answer on the first try, not on the fourth try. Before test-day, practice sketching problems out. Read more
Published: September 10, 2013
UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Opens New Innovation Lab
The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley is home to a new 2,700-square-foot Innovation Lab where students can participate in more team-based and experiential learning, primarily as part of the school’s innovative leader curriculum. The new I-Lab, located inside Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, was made possible thanks to a gift from alumnus Michael Gallagher, BS ‘67, MBA ‘68, former Haas Board chairman and retired CEO of Playtex Products. Haas Lecturer Clark Kellogg and Senior Lecturer Sara Beckman, who teach the school’s “Problem Finding Problem Solving” course, taught the first class in the new labratory space on Read more
Published: September 9, 2013
Shifts in Global Healthcare Increase Intersection between Medicine and the MBA
Entrepreneurship, innovation and cost cutting are increasingly important amid shifts in global healthcare systems, presenting important opportunities for business schools offering healthcare-focused MBA programs, the Financial Times reports. “The healthcare system is about much more than just treating patients,” Steve Chick, head of INSEAD’s Healthcare Management Initiative, told the FT. “The coordination of care is critical and that’s where business schools can play a big role.” Read more
Published: September 9, 2013
Trivia Tuesday: MIT Sloan’s First-Year Class
In this week’s instalment of Trivia Tuesday, we turn our focus to the Clear Admit School Guide to MIT Sloan, examining how the school creates first-year teams and how these teams impact students’ experiences. “Each first-year class of approximately 400 MBA students is divided into six smaller cohorts, or “oceans” (Atlantic, Baltic, Caribbean, Indian, Mediterranean and Pacific), which help to give shape to the core curriculum experience.  Oceans are comprised of approximately 65 students each, and the students in each ocean take all seven of their core courses together.  As a result of this shared academic experience, students within each Read more

MBA Livewire

December 17, 2024 2:58pm ET
Accepted to UT Austin / McCombs
Round: Round 1
Received via phone December 17, 2024
GPA: 3.3
EA: 151
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: Brazil
Note:

I got a call today from a student I connected with during the application process! 13y Background: operations, product management, and leadership positions.
December 17, 2024 2:53pm ET
Waitlisted at U. Washington / Foster
Round: Round 1
Received via email on December 12, 2024
GPA: 3.14
GRE: 324
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: SEA
Note:

Still hoping, I don't wanna leave...
December 17, 2024 2:52pm ET
Accepted to Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 03, 2024
GPA: 3.85
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: Boston
December 17, 2024 2:51pm ET
Accepted to Northwestern / Kellogg
Round: Round 1
Received via portal on December 10, 2024
GPA: 3.85
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: Boston
December 17, 2024 2:49pm ET
Accepted to MIT Sloan
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 11, 2024
GPA: 3.85
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: Boston
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